Many smoking devices have been proposed through the years as improvements upon, or alternatives to, smoking products that require combusting tobacco for use. Many of those devices purportedly have been designed to provide the sensations associated with cigarette, cigar, or pipe smoking, but without delivering considerable quantities of incomplete combustion and pyrolysis products that result from the burning of tobacco. To this end, there have been proposed numerous smoking products, flavor generators, and medicinal inhalers that utilize electrical energy to vaporize or heat a volatile material, or attempt to provide the sensations of cigarette, cigar, or pipe smoking without burning tobacco to a significant degree. See, for example, the various alternative smoking articles, aerosol delivery devices, and heat generating sources set forth in the background art described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,726,320 to Robinson et al., U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2013/0255702 to Griffith Jr. et al., and U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2014/0096781 to Sears et al., which are incorporated herein by reference. See also, for example, the various types of smoking articles, aerosol delivery devices, and electrically powered heat generating sources referenced by brand name and commercial source in U.S. Pat. App. Ser. No. 14/170,838 to Bless et al., filed Feb. 3, 2014, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Improvements to such types of smoking articles, aerosol delivery devices, and electrically powered heat generating sources, may be desirable. For example, it may be desirable to avoid direct engagement or physical contact between the aerosol precursor and the heating element implemented to volatilize the aerosol precursor to form an aerosol. As such, charring or other heat-related concerns associated with the device/apparatus for dispensing the aerosol precursor may be reduced or eliminated. In addition, issues related to interaction between the aerosol precursor and the carbon element such as, for example, short circuits, erosion, build-up, charring, or otherwise, may also be reduced or eliminated. In addition, it may be desirable for such types of smoking articles, aerosol delivery devices, and electrically powered heat generating sources to exhibit a faster heating/heat response time, with improved (lesser) power consumption for increased power source life.